Germs, notes & tea
by goldenlanterns
Summary: In which, Annabeth is sick (And the Jacksons are protective and caring)


Annabeth was sick, bad.

She had been sick before, fever, cold, but now it was like all the symptoms of everything had been dumped on her. Her throat was sore, her nose runny, Sally claimed she had a fever of 106 which Annabeth knew was pretty bad but she still felt like she was freezing.

She fell asleep on Percy's bed attempting studying the night before and in the morning, both of the Jacksons were hovering over her in concern, Sally offering her some orange juice.

She sat up and accepted it gladly, "What time is it?" She questioned.

"Time for Percy to go to school," Ms. Jackson said pointedly.

She choked on her juice, "What? I'm going to be late!" Annabeth exclaimed, coughing.

"Oh no you are not," Percy told her, giving her a little shove back onto the blankets, "You're not going anywhere this sick."

"But-But--"

"He's right Annabeth," Sally said, on the edge of the comforter.

"You've got a fever of a hundred and six," Percy persisted, "That's like five degrees away from dying Annabeth."

"Stop being melodramatic," She told him.

"He's not being dramatic, sweetie, you need to say here." Sally whispered.

Annabeth let her head fall back, sighing, "Alright. Fine."

Sally took her empty glass and went back to the kitchen, leaving crinkled-eyebrowed Percy sitting over her with a worried face. He held his cold hand to her forehead.

"You have to take notes for me. Decent ones, that make sense." She said.

He nodded, but she could tell he was distracted.

"Seriously. Take notes."

"You got it, notes. I promise." He told her.

"Percy!" Sally called from the other room, "You're going to be late if you don't leave this instant!"

He huffed and picked up his backpack, leaning over to kiss her.

She dodged him, "Don't. You'll get sick too."

He gave her an unimpressed look, "I was just going for your cheek but now that you've made an issue . . ." He held her neck so she couldn't move anyway and pressed his lips to hers. He lingered over her for a moment and then walked to the door, chewing his lip.

"Notes." She reminded him.

He nodded then smiled, "Whatever you say." And he hesitantly closed the door behind him.

Percy couldn't sit still in class, his knee was bouncing the whole time to a point where his swim team friend asked if he was alright.

"Annabeth's sick," He responded briefly, trying to figure out what that word on the board was under electron. So he did what he had seen Annabeth do, raise his hand.

"Yes Percy?"

"What's that say under electron?" He asked, pointing.

The teacher gave him a confused look--Percy didn't usually raise his hand in class unless he really had to go to the bathroom--but answered, "Fundamental." He mumbled.

"Thanks." Percy said, scribbling it down.

By the end of the day, his wrist and fingers hurt like Hades.

At lunch, he called his mom, and she said Annabeth's fever had gone down slightly but that was all. His mom gave Annabeth the phone and he could hear the look of disdain, "Percy." She started indifferently in a hoarse voice, "Why are you calling here? I'm fine. We're not attached at the hip for a reason you know."

He will admit, that kind of stung, "At least you're not dead." He offered.

She scoffed, "That's a good thing?"

"I only wanted to see if you felt any better." He explained, after a moment of not knowing what to say.

She sighed, "A little, the juice helps."

"Okay, I just wanted to make sure. Don't let Mom smother you, alright?"

She laughed a little then, "Jealous?"

"Oh screw you!" He announced, grinning, "Yes, I'm jealous. You get no school and freshly squeezed Mom juice while I have school and notes to take."

He heard the smile in her voice, "You're such a baby."

He laughed and took a big breath, "I don't have swim practice today so I'll be home early, okay?"

"Okay. And hurry it up, I need someone to cuddle."

"Sold. Love you, bye."

"You too, bye."

She felt a lot better now, she threw up earlier, before Sally left for work after lunch, and apparently all the germs got shot out in her puke. Disgusting as that was, she felt way better. Percy was relieved to hear it.

Annabeth didn't expect him to take notes this good. Once she translated his chicken scratch of hand writing, his notes actually made sense instead of only a bunch of strange abbreviations and crudely drawn boxes and dinosaurs, which was apparently the only things he drew.

He apologized several times for his terrible handwriting, but she told him it was okay. It might take a while to decipher but it was all there. He must've had fifteen pages total and even if she wouldn't say it to his face, she was a little turned on.

Wow, Annabeth thought to herself, You _know you're a nerd when you get turned on by chemistry work._

"Good boy," She joked, ruffling his already messed up hair.

He grinned and then lay flat on the bed next to her. She sat with one of his pillows between her back and the wall, examining the papers as Percy stared contently at the ceiling.

After a minute or two, he convulsed up with such suddenness that Annabeth jumped.

"I almost forgot, I'll be right back." He got up and Annabeth heard him in the kitchen, pouring water or something. She went back to reading and Percy came into his room good fifteen minutes later, humming and handing her a glass of blue liquid and setting his own on the bedside table.

"What's this?" She asked. They put blue food dye in everything these days and it was impossible to guess what she was about to drink.

"Some of my mom's herbal tea, blue for good luck." He answered, "It always makes my headaches feel better so I thought you might want it." He snorted, "I haven't had a headache in more than a year so I guess my mom forgot she had it."

"Oh," She took a sip and was shocked at how smooth and calming it really was, "Thanks."

He kissed her cheek and fell back into the bed again.

"Hey Seaweed Brain?"

"Hum?"

"I don't think you ever told me why you do this blue thing. I always guessed it was an inside joke with your mom but you never really told me the story."

"Oh," He said hesitantly. Suddenly, he looked tense, as if recalling a bad dream.

She focused on the sheets of notebook paper or her tea and looked away from him, trying to make it clear that if he didn't want to tell her, he didn't have to.

"One day," He began quietly, "After Gabe started living with us, he snapped at my mom that blue food didn't exist. Usually she would just humor him and I'd be the furious one but for some reason, she started to argue with him. Thinking back on it, I think it was something between her and my dad, because she was always so measured and controlled until Gabe said that, you know?" He snorted, and then shook his head, "That night, I realized she wasn't going to let it go. She cooked our spaghetti in blue water, the sauce and meatballs were dark blue and the chocolate chip cookies were blue and she just politely set it in front of Gabe on a blue plate that she went out and bought to spite him."

Annabeth laughed a little, "Now I know where you get that rebellious streak from."

He grinned over at her then continued, "And it never stopped. She would always be so collected around him and just gingerly give him seven layer dip that was all colored blue."

"Your mom is the best."

"Yeah," He agreed fondly.

Annabeth laughed, "You know what she said after you went to school?"

"What?"

"She said, 'I beg of you, don't get Percy sick too'. So I told her I would try and she said that you were the type that would be throwing up every two seconds and hallucinating and actually dying and still claim to be fine."

"What can I say?" He replied, smiling, "I flirt with death." After a moment he added, "Death and pretty Californian Athena girls." For which, she smacked him with a pillow.

The next day, Annabeth apologized to both Jacksons because Percy was now just as sick as she was the day before.


End file.
